When participating in different kinds of betting or games such as lotto, pools, harness racing, horse and dog racing, use is made of special preprinted coupons where the better fills in, for instance, the number of a competitor on which he puts his money to be the winner, the outcome of a match between two teams, or the numbers which the better believes are to be drawn in the next drawing. Then the better must go to a special betting shop, i.e. a place taking bets, to deliver the coupon which is then stamped or read in a machine, payment is made and the better gets a receipt for his participation in the game.
Several drawbacks are involved in such a betting method. For instance, coupons must be printed, which many times are unique to each round of games, and must be available in special betting shops before each round of games, and the better must thus go to the betting shop to obtain the correct coupon. Moreover, the better, after filling in the coupon, must go to a betting shop before a certain point of time to deliver the coupon, make the payment and get his receipt. In many cases the better does not obtain and deliver his coupons on the same occasion since, as a rule, he wants to carefully consider which alternatives are worth betting on. The latest point of time for delivering the coupon is usually relatively long before each round of games owing to the limited opening and closing hours of the betting shop, the administration of coupons and the like. Furthermore the betting company does not know who the better is, and in case of a prize the better must go to a betting shop with his signed coupon and collect the prize. Of course, these drawbacks act in a restricting manner for prospective betters taking part in the game and cause great time expenditure, planning and physical movement for betters taking part in the game. There is thus a need for simplifying the betting method on account of the betting shop as well as the better.
In addition to the above-mentioned types of betting where the betters bet their money on the outcome of an event such as a competition, match or lottery, there are many other kinds of party or amusement games, such as many forms of games or amusements where the participants use pen and paper to note text and/or figures. Examples of such games are Sinking ships, Tick-tack-toe, Pictionary, Bingo etc. These games require that the participants, who can be two people or more, be positioned close to each other during the game since a high degree of interactivity between the participants is necessary. It goes without saying that this restricts the possibilities of performing the games.